It’s hailed as one of the best places in the world to work, but for women,
Google might now look a little less appealing, after its gender pay gap was made public.
Staff at the search engine giant compiled their own pay data in a spreadsheet, provided to the New York Times, which shows women are paid less than men at most levels of the company.
Nearly 1200 US Google employees – two percent of the company’s workers worldwide – contributed their salary and bonus data to the spreadsheet.
It reveals entry-level female workers are paid, on average, $40,300, compared to $55,900 for men.
While women outearn their male colleagues at level two – $76,600 to $71,200 – they get left behind at all other levels, earning, on average, between two and nine percent less.
Their bonuses also tended to be lower, with a $7100 gap at level six – the highest level reported.
A Google employee launched the salary spreadsheet back in 2015 to help their colleagues negotiate better pay. The data had never before been made public.
Google responded to the spreadsheet by saying it was “not a representative sample”, and didn’t take into account where employees were based, their position or their performance at work.
In January, Google said its female workers were earning 99.7 to the male dollar. Its HR staff were not told the candidate’s gender when they determined the person’s starting salary, or when determining their bonus and any pay increase at annual review time.
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